ge: a sense of fair play

hsien loong is calling the opposition to field all 84 candidates. this is the first time where the call comes out genuine. and he meant it, for all the good reasons. the pap is confident, but is also feeling the pressure from all the gossips about how the game is being played. in the past it was simply ignored, talked away. but today, there is this intent to really test their support without being accused of all the things that they have done in the past. it seems that hsien loong really want to put to test where he stands, where the party stands. with minimal changes to the election boundaries, this has elicited many responses from both the party and the opposition. all welcomes this. ong kian min said, 'i think this increases the sense of fair play, and suggests the boundaries have not been redrawn for whimsical reasons. in the past, people complained that radical changes were made to suit the ruling party.' zulkifli baharudin said that it avoids criticism previously levelled against the system. how true were the criticism, it is just a perception. only time will tell the truth for the drastic changes in the past. like it or not, when one is holding a knife in the scene of a murder, it is difficult for people not to suspect anything. would the status quo in election boundaries really be a test of the strength of the pap? i doubt so. the system still favours the ruling party with its organisation and huge resources. it will be a fairer contest if there are more single wards and the huge grcs be reduced to 3 or 4 candidates. then the playing field will be more level. then only will we see a genuine contest, and where lies the heart of the voters.

mindless idolation of talents

i thought the nkf episode would have taught singaporeans an embarrassing lesson in behaving like little girls idolising their favourite celebrities. talents were blindly appreciated and praised and ended up with red faces. but at least there is now an attempt to correct the silliness of the whole episode, to right the wrongs and uphold values that are considered worthy. now the agu case is anything but stupidity. why would people entrusted with public money threw them at a rotten apple. everything is wrong. give him another chance, but not the way the events unfolded and the truth emerged. apparently agu returned only when he found out that he was not good enough in russia, uk and canada. during his absence, he was in these places for trial. otherwise he would be gone and with all our money, faith, trust and laughing at our idiocy. agu exemplified everything that is wrong, untrusthworthy, deceitful, greed, taking advantage of his naive benefactors, cheating, and what else. and he is going to don our national colours as one of us, and we pay him dearly. where is the sense of righteousness, uprightness, honesty, honour, trust...is a little thrash talent worth so much that we give up all the virtues that we live by and wanted our people to live by? the whole issue is not only a case of children playing their little pranks, but shame. we can forgive him, but not the way he is welcomed back to have a chance to repeat the whole damn thing once again. if he is not ask to go now, and if he does a repeat, all those who put the money and trust in him must go. this is a case of poor judgement, bad judgement, and a compromise of our simple decent values.

hdb: 5 equals 4

the latest announcement that hdb is converting its unsold 5 room flats into 2 x 2 room flats is another funny figure crunching. 5 rooms become 2 rooms. the only thing good is that the converted 2 roomers must be technically having 2 and a half room of a 5 room flats. so these flats must be bigger. just like a 5 room flat must be bigger than a 4 room flat. good buy. provided there are buyers. apparently so as the number of buyers for big flats have mostly disappeared and many are downgrading to smaller and smaller flats. so much for prosperity and a booming economy and good times. during good times people are all downgrading. what happens during bad times, all upgrading?

ge: politics has to regain its former dignity

this is a statement by chua lee hoong, the review editor of the straits times. she added that it is not so much about winning an election but about how votes were garnered. both comments were in her article today which started with the changing of political boundaries as the butt of singaporean jokes. why the cynicism? why must politics return to its former dignity? has it be degraded to such an extent that it has lost all sense of being dignified? the scepticism and cynicism, if traced backwards, did tell a story about something not exactly right. but the changing of political boundaries were all done above board, by indepedent civil servants. why should that be subject to ridicule? it is all in the perception. it is all in how people think that it is done for reasons that put some in an advantageous position while some in a disadvantageous position. it is seen as a changing of the known factors, changing things that ought not to be changed. but we have all the valid reasons to change political boundaries for our uniquely singaporean reasons. everything is done with a sound reason. only whether people believe in them, or who believe in them.

ge: number of voters

earlier i posted a set of figures stating that the number of voters increase from 2001 to 2005 was 45,000, or an annual increase of only 9,000. these are official figures. and today we are seeing another set of official figures showing an increase of 121,000 over the same period. this gives an annual increase of about 24,000. hey, what is happening? what are all the numbers jumping around and all different? the first set of figures was frightening in the sense that it shows a big disappearing act. many singaporeans are disappearing from our voting list. today the figure is more comforting, though still registering an annual shortfall of about 6,000 from an average growth rate of 30,000, assuming that new citizens just about enough to offset death rate. there is still a net loss, and mainly of better trained and qualified people who are good enough to depart for greener pasture. it is not easy to nail a number that is unchanging. but this official set today must be the final figure and no changes should be expected from them.